How to merge 1Password data from two Macs together?

dougkramer

Could someone please point me to instructions on how to merge two 1Password databases together, where each is from a different Mac?

Can I export the data from one (as .pif) and import that into the other?

Does merging ever combine (or delete) records, or does it instead always keep records separate and leave it to the user to merge them?

SeanFoster

Hello @dougkramer‌,

I believe I can help you with this. Honestly, the absolute easiest way to accomplish this would be through a Dropbox sync of your two vaults. Would you be willing to give that a try? If so, you can follow this guide. All you need is a free Dropbox account and the Dropbox app installed on your two Macs.

A merger should never delete items. It will combine identical items. In the worst case scenario, 1Password will have no idea of how to line up the two sets of data and you will end up with lots of duplicate entries in the newly-merged vault.

The benefit of a Dropbox sync would be the two Macs would stay in sync from this point on. Using a .pif to merge your vaults would lead to them falling out of sync again as time went on.

Let me know what you think and we can proceed from there. :smile:

Sean

dougkramer

Thanks for much! I first installed and populated 1Password on my wife's personal iMac, then manually copied the data to my corporate MacBook Pro (MBP) so I would have my personal passwords at work. The reason I haven't used Dropbox is because my company does not allow Dropbox on their corporate computers (although they do allow Google Drive).

I just bought an iMac for myself, so will try copying the MBP data to that and doing a Dropbox sync with my wife's iMac. I do want to keep them in sync from now on, but will have to continue keeping the MBP out of sync (until you support Google Drive).

To simplify things, whenever I made changes to my MBP list, I made sure not to change any records that were already on my wife's iMac (I make those changes directly on the iMac).

I have printed out both lists and determined which records were new on the MBP. I deleted all other records from that list. I will use this data on my new iMac and sync from there.

One question -- how does 1Password determine that two records are identical? Only if they are equal in all fields (username, password, website, notes, created, last modified, etc.)?

I'l let you know how it goes.

dougkramer

I believe I followed all the instructions. However, I now have 123 records on my new iMac but only 96 records on my wife's iMac. They are both logged into the same Dropbox account, and neither is paused. I don't know why my wife's iMac's 1Password data won't sync to my iMac. I have quit and restarted 1Password on both computers. Both are connected by Ethernet on the same internal network.

How do I force them to sync?

What you said about having near-duplicate records is true on my iMac. It will be easy to resolve them.

dougkramer

I got them to sync. I just had to go to my wife's iMac 1Password > Preferences > Sync > Dropbox, then merge.

Thanks. Now I'm still forced to keep a version on my MPB that I have to manually sync.

SeanFoster

Glad to hear that worked out for you. :smile:

Do you have an iOS device at your disposal? You could always sync via WiFi with your Macbook Pro.